PEOPLE’S INITIATIVE: Let us pass on and amplify the very informative STAR column yesterday of our colleague Satur Ocampo on the imperative of ridding the country of the pork barrel plague through People’s Initiative.

Tomorrow, another attempt will be made at the Luneta to mass the warm bodies and the resolve of a million Filipinos to banish the pork barrel scourge. “Million” is not literal, as it actually refers to a critical mass enough to propel the citizens’ campaign to fruition.

People’s Initiative is being resorted to — the citizens taking this legislative matter into their own hands — because it is clear that the Congress has been conspiring with the Executive to perpetuate pork barrel as a means to control public funds for their political purposes.

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COMELEC TEST: But the very law outlining the mechanism for a system of initiative and referendum under Article VI, Section 32, of the Constitution has what looks to us as a tricky requirement that could frustrate its noble intentions.

Under this enabling law (RA 6735), the people’s petition must be endorsed by at least 10 percent of the total number of registered voters nationwide — about six million — with at least three percent of them residing in every legislative district.